Logitech Considers 'Forever Mouse' With Subscription Fee

[JPack]

What ”software updates” can there be to make a mouse “new”? Are they adding camera functionality, text messaging or a toaster oven?

It's the code word for DRM.

Think about it for a second. Logitech can clearly sell a "forever" mouse with reliable hardware that lasts forever. They don't want to. They want to tie it to software.

If it were about software, they'd sell a software update only. Instead, it's clear they want software to control the hardware, just like Internet connection required HP printers with subscription ink.

If you don't pay, your mouse doesn't work anymore. Logitech is basically proposing a consumable item for a peripheral that should last for a decade.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I would love to pay a subscription for a mouse and a subscription for a keyboard and a subscription for a monitor and a subscription for my desk and a subscription for my chair…and software
Hmmmm. It sounds a lot like renting

Air & water by subscription is soon to follow.

Hopefully, Apple doesn't get into those business... as some of our poor friends around here who accidentally run out of Apple air will probably opt to smother to death than breath the inferior abomination that is regular air... or worse, Samesung air or similar.

 

[btrach144]

The bigger news story here for MacRumors is that she said she didn’t think Logitech was in the smart home market anymore, but she’d have to check on that. (She’s been CEO for over 8 months.)

This is a direct threat towards all of the Logitech HomeKit hardware that exists.

Logitech marketing came out and directly contradicted their CEO and said Logitech is still selling smart home products lmaooo.

And of course she had the gall to float the idea of a subscription mouse.

Remove her as CEO before she ruins Logitech

 

[johnediii]

Yeah, no.

The only reason this is under consideration is because Logitech is designing mice using microswitches that can fail in less than a year. The old Microsoft mice from years ago never failed like the current Logitech stuff.

I still have several of the original style Microsoft optical "intellimouses". Nice curve to fit the hand. Solid feel. Good play in the buttons with a good solid click.

Logitech should've looked at the roasting HP got recently for subscription based printers. Read the room, Logitech.

 

[purplefox]

"You will own nothing and be happy".

 

[narenh]

I'm excited for more of this! Just imagine when we only get to take 10 photos/mo on our phones for free, and you can pay $9.99/mo for 1000 photos and just $19.99/mo for an unlimited plan! I also really hate getting to use my kitchen appliances for free, I need a subscription for my stove and fridge too

 

[CarAnalogy]

I have used these for 20 years and I cannot find a more comfortable mouse. The first one became faulty after about 14 years of continual use. I purchased another for £9 which is what sits on my desk today. A subscription mouse sounds horrendous.

That was my gaming mouse for many years. Almost forgot about that little buddy. I'm gonna have to see if I can find another one. Logitech made a clone of it for a long time that was also very good.

 

[Six0Four]

Logitech. Good products. Worst customer service out of any company I have ever witnessed in my 39 years on earth. It's actually unbelievable How inept their customer service is.

 

[chrono1081]

Honestly I don't even want to buy anything from them anymore just for touting this outrageousness. I'm so sick of the greed of corporations.

Logitech isn't even that good anymore, their quality has nosedived in the past 10 years.

 

[bradman83]

Having read the entirety of this interview, Logitech's CEO is mis-quoted here. She admitted that the company hadn't figured out how to market such a product or what the business model would be to actually make money in the long run. The interviewer brought up that it could rely on a subscription or support contract model to which the CEO effectively said "yeah that's an option."

 

[AZhappyjack]

How much do you figure the average user is worth to Logitech over a lifetime? Certain people would rather spend that money up front and get really nice hardware. Many people buy lots of $20 mice. Many are in the middle, buying several $50 mice. There's no right answer for everyone. He was just talking about options. In many ways, that $200 mouse is the best bargain.

Yeah, I thought that about their Harmony line of remotes… then they s#!tcanned that line of products and left me hanging. Fool me once …

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yeah. I think this confirms it. These Tech CEOs are completely delusional. Literally no one wants a subscription for their MOUSE! And what happens if you stop paying the subscription? Does the mouse brick itself?

The same conspired to figure out a way to make more profit from a commodity called the hard drive... by rebranding it a cloud... readily moving many to separate themselves from their data in spite of the same cloud rent being able to buy abundant HDD storage to own, not forever rent. Could that insanity work? Of course it did and now people pay relatively high rent to have someone else- complete strangers in most cases- manage their hard drive storage (including their precious data). And that rent is forever. Not only will many readily pay for this "cloud" but they'll also thoroughly evangelize it and its rent to others.

Another group looked at the most abundant material on the planet... something that in most places will fall from the sky for free if you just give it up to a few days... bottle it...and now it's a massive business ($342B in 2023)... bigger than some product sold by someone called iPhone. WATER! A substance covering about 2/3rds of the planet and odds are very high that many buying it can walk to this thing called a tap in their home, throw a lever and this precious elixir of obvious great value, will run freely out of that tap. I've heard the very wealthy may have several of these taps in their homes and some- allegedly- will use a bigger taps to bathe themselves in this precious commodity and not even recycle the water used in that way. Go figure!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The final revenge of rodentkind: a mousetrap where it is the mouse who traps the humans.

Perfect! You win the Internet today my friend. That's a LOL.

 

[JPack]

I still have several of the original style Microsoft optical "intellimouses". Nice curve to fit the hand. Solid feel. Good play in the buttons with a good solid click.

Logitech should've looked at the roasting HP got recently for subscription based printers. Read the room, Logitech.

This CEO is trying to replicate the success of the previous leadership, who capitalized on selling millions of C920 webcams at $99 (originally launched in 2012 for $99).

Since there's no way she can duplicate that success, she's considering a subscription/DRM model for keyboards/mice.

 

[Neofox]

I thought that every mouses was a "forever mouse"...
I never seen a mouse as a consumable or something that needs new feature all the time 🙄

 

[Mudhen]

A curse on whomever started this subscription model for everything. If I buy something it’s either mine or it isn’t. Maybe the DOJ or FTC should start finding reasons to go after these companies.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Nope, won’t buy/rent/steal one. If I find one I’ll make sure to smash it with a hammer, microwave it and then Fedex it to the idiot who passes off on this plan.

I do subscribe; to Apple Music, Netflix & Swearnet.

I don’t subscribe to hardware; I buy it.

Point & click is basic functionality that should be paid for once. That’s it. Anything else is theft on the part of the manufacturer or questionable intelligence on the part of the user.

Tom

 

[Bruh Bear]

This may be the single dumbest thing I've ever seen for a subscription.

 

[Dark_Omen]

My $24 Microsoft mouse is on year 5.

Are you referring to the Microsoft Arc Mouse?

 

[acader]

SW Upgrades?? For a mouse?? What's it going to do? Move and click on its own!!!

But you've got to give it to Logitech for having the guts to float and insane idea and check the end-user reaction. Maybe this is a stealth ops for something different 🤔

 

[djc6]

I have used these for 20 years and I cannot find a more comfortable mouse. The first one became faulty after about 14 years of continual use. I purchased another for £9 which is what sits on my desk today. A subscription mouse sounds horrendous.

I 100% agree. I got an extra (new old stock) off eBay just in case. Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical is my forever mouse as well - came out 21 years ago in 2003 and still works! No subscription necessary.

 

[B4U]

I usually say this is what losing their minds mean.
But in this case, I am going to say they cannot lose something that they never had in the first place. 🙃

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

If they meant I could get a new one every time their cheap coatings wear off on their MX mice, then I’d be onboard.

But paying for software updates? It’s this kind of 🤡💩 that made me stop using all of their other hardware.

$26 for a mouse and/or keyboard? You can keep that e-waste. I wish any of mice were that cheap. Hell, add a zero to the end and you’ve got what my last set of keycaps cost.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Charging businesses .25cents per click per employee.

 

[Cape Dave]

Dumber than a box of very dumb rocks.